MILWAUKEE: vote for the city's new flag

[Steely Dan]

as we all know, the current milwaukee city flag is a disaster of design. they threw everything at the flag to see what would stick and, apparently, everything stuck.

bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad:


source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Milwaukee








so a group of civic-minded milwaukeeans sponsored a campaign to have a contest to design a new flag for the city. they received hundreds of entries and have now winnowed them down to five finalists and have released them to the public. none of this is technically official yet, but there's speculation the city council may hold a vote on whether or not to adopt whichever finalist ends up winning as the city's new official flag.

so, which one is your favorite?





Three Rivers
Milwaukee’s three rivers flow from the land into the lake, with a large disc representing the city united and our brewing history.


source: http://radiomilwaukee.org/story/mkeflag-design-contest/






"M" Star
Four “M”s connect to form a cream-colored star representing Milwaukee on the blue lake, its Native American roots, and symbolizing the city’s bright future.


source: http://radiomilwaukee.org/story/mkeflag-design-contest/






Golden Arrow
Milwaukee’s past, present, and future, moving in a positive direction, symbolized through its rivers, brewing history, and the lake, with white echoing the art museum.


source: http://radiomilwaukee.org/story/mkeflag-design-contest/






"Cream City" Star
The green symbolizes our commitment to preserving our city's natural beauty and the blue represents our lifeblood of Lake Michigan, coming together in the cream-city of Milwaukee - represented in the 6-pointed star that symbolizes the 3 original sections of the city and its 3 rivers.


source: http://radiomilwaukee.org/story/mkeflag-design-contest/






Sunrise Over The Lake
The sun rising over Lake Michigan symbolizes a new day. The blue bars in its reflections represent the city’s three rivers and founders.


source: http://radiomilwaukee.org/story/mkeflag-design-contest/






if you like, you can rate each of the 5 finalists on a scale of 1-10 at the official website of the new flag contest:

https://docs.google.com/a/behlesbehl...requested=true

[M II A II R II K]

Maybe a flag that features a bottle of beer in it.

[brickell]

Sunrise on the lake looks like a generic retirement home Florida flag that was designed in the 80s. Anything but that one. But I like both of the stars, with a nod towards the M star because it's more memorable as an outsider.

[KB0679]

Sunrise Over the Lake looks like an inverted Obama logo with different colors.

I'm partial to Three Rivers and "Cream City" Star.

[the urban politician]

M star takes the cake

[Centropolis]

ugh. come on milwaukee.

[Boisebro]

hmmm.

none of them really trip my trigger. the three rivers idea is okay, but not really "milwaukee-unique".

a shame none of them play off the bridge wars that resulted in the downtown bridges being at different wonky angles.

i voted for the M-star. needs more beer, though.

maybe they should just have a flag with a picture of alice cooper and this quote:

Wayne Campbell: So, do you come to Milwaukee often?
Alice Cooper: Well, I'm a regular visitor here, but Milwaukee has certainly had its share of visitors. The French missionaries and explorers were coming here as early as the late 1600s to trade with the Native Americans.
Pete: In fact, isn't "Milwaukee" an Indian name?
Alice Cooper: Yes, Pete, it is. Actually, it's pronounced "mill-e-wah-que" which is Algonquin for "the good land."
Wayne Campbell: I was not aware of that.

[Steely Dan]

my take:

Three Rivers: way too literal. flags should be symbolic, but they shouldn't be stylized maps of physical geography, and this flag shows why.


"M" Star: my favorite of the bunch. it's not brilliant, but it's simple and gets the job done. that's a flag i wouldn't mind see proudly flying on buildings all over downtown milwaukee.


Golden Arrow: it's not a bad design, just a bit on the generic side. it just doesn't really "feel" like milwaukee to me, whatever that means.


"Cream City" Star: it's alright i guess, but given the prominence that 6-pointed stars have on chicago's flag (and the history of milwaukee being perennially in chicago's shadow), it'd probably be better to pick a different symbol for milwaukee's flag.


Sunrise Over The Lake: "a generic retirement home in Florida flag that was designed in the 80s" sums it up perfectly, LOL! i really, really hope they choose one of the other 4 designs.

[MolsonExport]

M-Star. the rest are just wretched poo.

[Kngkyle]

Hands down the Golden Arrow one. The colors are awesome and it would look great on merchandise. It has a 'coolness' to it similar to the Chicago, Colorado, and Amsterdam flags.

I don't get the whole 'cream' thing... it's a terrible color for a flag.. it makes it look old and faded even when its brand new. The 'M'-star one with white instead of cream would be my 2nd choice, and I'll admit the design may be more timeless than Golden Arrow.. but it's less cool.

[Vlajos]

Wow, Milwaukee's current flag is really ugly. Almost any of those are better. l like the three rivers the most. Voted accordingly.

[KevinFromTexas]

Modern flags are too simplistic and unimaginative.

I like their current one, but maybe with a little less excitement. And really, a polluting factory and a red-skinned Indian chief?

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Modern flags are too simplistic

uhhh, all good flags, throughout history, have been simplistic. it's the very most basic point of good flag design. it's not a modern notion at all.

flags are intended to be seen and recognized from a distance, not up close under careful inspection, so they need to be simple and bold to be effective.

highly intricate and jumbled designs with literal imagery and lettering (such as milwaukee's current mess of a flag) are the very antithesis of what a good flag should be.

[MolsonExport]

three rivers, golden arrow, and sunrise over lake are extremely bad. the current flag is a kitchen sink.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I'm pretty surprised that none of them are really bad. Most are pretty bland, but nothing to actually be offended by. The M-star has a fairly unique symbol on it so it might stand out the best in a lineup of flags.

I don't think flags and nicknames or slogans belong with cities. The identity of a city exists because the city exists not because you say, land of beer or infinite horizons or big turd.

Smaller cities waste way too much time and money on this kind of useless branding/rebranding. Want to do something special? Every time you want to spend a few million reprinting stuff because you redesigned something, clean up the city, plant more trees, build more bikelanes. Fund the local arts group to put plays on in the park during the summer and stop prrinting the old flag on things. Just name the city. Milwaukee has a great name and a great heritage of beer and Laverne and Shirley.

The best advertisement for your city is happy and productive people in your city. Work with that.

[MolsonExport]

Smaller cities waste way too much time and money on this kind of useless branding/rebranding.

Agreed.

[RobertLenz]

Hi everyone! I've been a lurker here for awhile.

I'm honored to have been chosen as one of the finalists. There were so many great submissions. My flag is "Sunrise Over the Lake". Things like this are subjective, and you're all entitled to your opinions. That being said, I hope you'll take some time to check out this site I created, which explains the meaning behind my design.

http://robertlenz.com/mkeflag

Regardless of which design ends up winning, I'm very excited about the possibility of the new flag being officially adopted. The current flag is a mess, and any of the finalists would be better than what we currently have.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

I don't think flags and nicknames or slogans belong with cities.

i disagree with that one million billion trillion percent. flags can be a huge point of civic pride. just look at the way the citizenry of chicago embraces and celebrates its flag.

i'm of the opinion that a little civic pride is a good thing. it means people actually give a bit of a shit about where they live, warts and wall.

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

Smaller cities waste way too much time and money on this kind of useless branding/rebranding.

the city of milwaukee hasn't spent a single red cent on this effort to get the city a new flag. this initiative is run by private citizens. the hope is that when a final winner has been chosen, they might be able to cajole the powers that be in city government to adopt the new flag to put the embarrassment of the current flag behind them.

[UPChicago]

All of them are terrible.......

[Cirrus]

3 Rivers is awkward, but the rest are all good flags. Any of them are better than the current one.

And ditto to everything Steely Dan said about how good flags are supposed to be simple.